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Post by Yin on Oct 15, 2008 6:58:28 GMT
What th'...? How long has Annie been standing there?? Those eyebags are freaking me out. (All right, all right, so we're not observant enough about hair length of all things.)
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Post by agasa on Oct 15, 2008 7:00:37 GMT
Right, the fake had the hairstyle of the S1 chapter...too bad we did not notice...but we DID knew it was a fake, nonetheless.
For who's wandering i'm referring to Tom's comment.
Annie seems half dead (i actually thinked of martin, heh), not kinda pale...woah. Poor lass...what the hell happened must have been STRESSING.
Also...she did not stand out there for a whole lot, Yin. It is still raining a little, so my guess is one hour or two, MOSTLY. Probably, less than one half hour. it's still nighttime.
Wait. The rain seems to be stoppin in this exact moment. So, her awakening and the rain stopping can be linked? the link be zimmy, i think.
On a side note, i think her insensitive, detached front is shattered, at least for this chapter time being. maybe. she seems shocked enough.
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Post by Refugee on Oct 15, 2008 7:10:01 GMT
OK, then, Zimmy, why does it bother you so much to be there?
I think, to answer my own question, that Z. can't control whether she's there or not, nor can she keep it from being hideously unpleasant. All she can do is keep it from killing her outright.
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How long were they gone? Apparently not long enough for the others to, say, notice they were paralyzed. I'm thinking dream-time operates in gop-world.
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And yes, I think Zimmy did create g-Kat to distract Annie from searching.
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There are still many unaswered questions, but at this point, I'm not much worried about them. Zimmy cannot do much damage, cannot strand anyone else in her world.
And she had the decency to reassure Annie. She gets points from me for that.
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Post by strainofthought on Oct 15, 2008 7:13:29 GMT
My impression is that Antimony's entire adventure in Birmingham happened over the course of a few moments and the eyebags formed more or less instantaneously. Kat has just barely had time to realize Antimony is being unusually quiet, even for her.
EDIT: Dangit, beat me to it Refugee.
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eldras
New Member
Pestis eram vivus...moriens tua mors ero
Posts: 15
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Post by eldras on Oct 15, 2008 7:13:57 GMT
"It's only as real sa you let it be" *hmmm* Zimmy, if she does know that, why is so afraid of the nobodies?, or is she refering to the real Kat? Just messing with Annie? I don't think that much time have passed, as no one but Kat seem to have noticed Annie's standing there looking at the vacuum space. PD: I fear for Annie's sanity after this chapter. ____ Edit: Refugge just stole the words of my mouth  Anyway, I doubt that Zimmy's words make Annie feel any better. |
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Post by inhumandecency on Oct 15, 2008 7:16:06 GMT
My inability to read Annie's mind gets steadily more frustrating. Is she touching Kat out of relief, or because she wants to make sure she can't make her disappear? I wonder why Zimmy has trouble taking her own advice. Or maybe she does take it. If we postulate that it's not particularly possible for her to control her experiences, then the fact that she's still even a little sane means she's more of a shaman than I'd made her out to be. In any case, what she tells Annie is surprisingly compassionate, and at the same time disturbing as hell. update: "It's only as real sa you let it be" *hmmm* Zimmy, if she does know that, why is so afraid of the nobodies?, or is she refering to the real Kat? Oh my sweet lord you think she might be referring to the real world there? That's so much more terrifying than how I interpreted it, and I was pretty terrified before. I don't think that's right, but you get credit for blowing my mind. Also, I wouldn't worry too much about Annie's sanity, assuming this doesn't become a regular occurrence. People are surprisingly good at bouncing back once there's solid ground under them again. Just ask anyone who ever had a bad trip. |
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Post by Mezzaphor on Oct 15, 2008 7:17:18 GMT
Yeah, none of the other kids noticed anything unusual yet. Heck, Jack's still holding up the umbrella for the girls. I think the mental adventure only took a few moments of realtime.
Odd detail: Annie's eyeshadow doesn't seem to have run at all in the real world.
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Post by Refugee on Oct 15, 2008 7:19:42 GMT
Is the guy with the brolly also looking a bit stunned? Did he go? Did he make it back?
I too am bothered by the bags under Annie's eyes, but the more I look at them, the more I think they're just runny mascara.
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Post by eightyfour on Oct 15, 2008 7:21:20 GMT
How long were they gone? Apparently not long enough for the others to, say, notice they were paralyzed. I'm thinking dream-time operates in gop-world. I agree. To the outside world it most likely just seemed like an instant. I don't think the fake Kat really was "created" by anybody, at least not conciously. Annie seems half dead (i actually thinked of martin, heh), not kinda pale...woah. Poor lass...what the hell happened must have been STRESSING. Annie pretty much saw her closest friend die moments ago. Of course it's been stressing. I'd expected her to dive straight for Gamma's throat once they came out though, after her face on the last page. |
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Post by agasa on Oct 15, 2008 7:27:23 GMT
Of course it's been stressing. I'd expected her to dive straight for Gamma's throat once they came out though, after her face on the last page. I was talking about physically stressing. like staying awake for three straight days. |
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Post by Refugee on Oct 15, 2008 7:29:52 GMT
Huh, also: The "rain" stopped. I think it didn't work to quench Zimmy's anguish because it's not rain. It's water that's been sucked up out of the lake by what-ever-the-hell, I'm guessing as a side-effect, and then dropped again. Lake water doesn't work.
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Somehow, the experiment traffics in the same energies that Zimmy uses. That's why she was recruited -- it may indeed be a gift, if she can learn to control it.
Hmm...Zimmy's a pilot, a navigator. She can't actually take you anywhere, but with training, she can guide and focus the tower energies.
She says she's allowed to be there. She's been shown this place. And dollars to donuts, this entire expedition is known and monitored and tolerated because it brought Annie on the scene.
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chibisoma
New Member
Banned - Rule 1
Posts: 49
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Post by chibisoma on Oct 15, 2008 7:36:05 GMT
I don't think the fake Kat really was "created" by anybody, at least not conciously.
Thus would you say she was created by... nobody?
The way I see it, Annie's eyes are starting to become like Zimmy's. Zimmy knows how to deal with it. Annie doesn't. Hence why she looks so much more screwed up. Zimmy knows how to deal with her nightmare world. Annie was subjected to madness.
I guess that's the price she pays for being a jerk this chapter.
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ecomono
Junior Member
like tuning in a radio
Posts: 83
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Post by ecomono on Oct 15, 2008 8:23:26 GMT
The way I see it, Annie's eyes are starting to become like Zimmy's. I'm pretty sure the eye thing is just her eyeliner melting. |
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Post by nikita on Oct 15, 2008 10:06:00 GMT
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Post by Vanessa on Oct 15, 2008 10:16:07 GMT
I don't think they're bags under her eyes, it looks like mascara which has run to me. That's what mine looks like anyway. It is strange how her eyeshadow hasn't run though like it had before, but it's kind of messy in a different way now.
Eyeshadow doesn't actually run the way it did in the last few pages. Maybe that's just how Zimmy thought it might?
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Post by Mezzaphor on Oct 15, 2008 11:23:08 GMT
Does Annie even wear mascara? Considering that Annie and Gamma have similar powers over Zimmy's mind, I would guess that what happened to Annie's eyes is the same thing that's been happening to Gamma's eyes. She says she's allowed to be there. She's been shown this place. And dollars to donuts, this entire expedition is known and monitored and tolerated because it brought Annie on the scene. She said she's allowed to be up and about at night, not that she was allowed to be there. And she only found the power station (presumably on her own) that evening. |
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Kuraru
Junior Member
The mind is just a plaything of the body, is it not?
Posts: 75
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Post by Kuraru on Oct 15, 2008 11:39:06 GMT
Fake Kat's existance really does seem to have been to make Annie do what Zimmy wanted to do, i.e. find Gamma. The first thing Fake Kat says can be boilled down to 'We need to find Gamma'.
Alternatively Birmingham [or nightmare Birmingham, there's no a lot of difference between the two] could react to the subconcious of those inside it, creating and destroying people depending on what the people in it are thinking. Fake Kat could be considered the voice of Annie's hiden feelings. Fake Kat says that she's 'about to flip out' if they don't leave, something that cool, calm Annie would never admit to, though Annie does, indeed, appear to be about flip out, as evidenced by her reaction to gopping Fake Kat. Also, when they enter the shop, Fake Kat looks scared and her and Annie hold hands. In this case it may be Annie that needs comforting, and she is subconciously protecting her normal visage [cool and calm] by giving her some viable reason to hold hands with her best friend. She believes that she is comforting Kat, whereas, in fact, she is comforting herself.
Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.
In any case, great work Tom, a really fantastic [if short] story arc!
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Post by Tom Siddell on Oct 15, 2008 13:07:48 GMT
Annie doesn't wear eyeliner or mascara.
Edit: Yup, just eye shadow and lipstick.
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Post by popo on Oct 15, 2008 14:33:20 GMT
eye shadow?
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Post by inhumandecency on Oct 15, 2008 16:41:27 GMT
I'd like to point out that copyKat seems to have been a genuinely beneficial figure. Annie wanted Kat to be all right, and she got to see that she was. She wanted someone to share comfort with, and she got it. She got Annie to let Zimmy lead them to Gamma, which, as many of us have noted, was clearly a smarter choice and also a compassionate one. If I had the ability to summon a convincing phantasm of my best friend when I needed help, that would be great! Gamma also didn't do anything particularly bad. She got rid of the nobody (who might not have even looked like Kat to her, or who she assumed Annie had already seen through) and brought the real people back. She might have intended to explain, but when she saw Annie starting to go critical, she assuaged Annie's fear in the fastest and most convincing way. Finally, Zimmy was right that Gamma was the person to go to. There's no evidence that Gamma would have taken them back right away if there had been others to rescue, and if they'd waited to find the others first, they'd never have succeeded. So it seems like the only problem is that Annie didn't know what was going on. Perhaps once she does she'll be able to look at all this in a more analytical light. Fake Kat could be considered the voice of Annie's hiden feelings. Fake Kat says that she's 'about to flip out' if they don't leave, something that cool, calm Annie would never admit to, though Annie does, indeed, appear to be about flip out, as evidenced by her reaction to gopping Fake Kat. Also, when they enter the shop, Fake Kat looks scared and her and Annie hold hands. In this case it may be Annie that needs comforting, and she is subconciously protecting her normal visage (cool and calm) by giving her some viable reason to hold hands with her best friend. Yeah, I think you nailed Annie's feelings here. But note that these would all be true if Kat had been real too! There's nothing unusual about dealing with a situation by trying to help others through it. I noted a few pages back that Kat's body language was unusually submissive, but I'd have expected the same basic dynamic to unfold if she'd been real. |
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Post by Tenjen on Oct 15, 2008 18:06:51 GMT
I'd like to say i called it.
and am in no way happy about it : \
annie's very traumatized by all this.
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Post by Goatmon on Oct 15, 2008 18:42:42 GMT
Poor Annie's world has been molested.  |
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Post by fishf00d on Oct 16, 2008 3:08:28 GMT
I think they were gone for a few momets at most, enough time for John and Margot to get to the inside, especially considering that Jack is still there with the umbrella. Also, I knew there was something different about that Kat, I just couldnt put my finger on it. (Not to claim that I got it  ) |
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Post by cenit on Oct 16, 2008 5:00:09 GMT
Officially creeped out here
Idea: All this happened inside Annies mind!!! The experiment affected Annie in the same way it affected Z, and each of them went into their own creepy worlds, and Gamma had to tune them both!!! That's why Z is telling her to let it go
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Naota
New Member
Resident Demonologist
Posts: 4
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Post by Naota on Oct 16, 2008 7:27:12 GMT
Of all the intense theorizing on what's truly going on, the stuff of literal nightmares populating this alternate landscape of mental horrors, and even which world, if any is truly legitimate, I must admit that I found myself almost expecting something of this er... unique variety. The panels weren't exactly so clean-cut as the present page, but I made due with what I had and an excess of time. Perhaps it is more likely than one may think. After all, which is the real world? What is 'real'? How do you define 'real'? If it is only what you can see, and touch, and smell, then reality is simply a series of electric signals interpreted by your brain. I'm going to offer you a choice... Recursive nightmare indeed. |
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Post by inhumandecency on Oct 16, 2008 7:51:26 GMT
Nice mashup. I figure that's exactly what Annie was trying to reassure herself _wouldn't_ happen. Despite the irony of getting my reality-testing from a schizophrenic science fiction author, I've never done any better than Philip K. Dick's maxim: "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." |
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Post by Rasselas on Oct 16, 2008 8:21:46 GMT
That Philip K. Dick maxim is quite pertinent, thank you.
The collusion of two parallel worlds is stunning in this chapter. Moreso, when we consider that Zimmy's nightmare world was probably created by the author's own impressions of "our" real world. A distorted reflection of sorts, and a small crack in the story-telling's "fourth panel" reaching towards the readers.
How many years has Zimmy lived? In real life, she's a young girl. Experience-wise, she could be an old hag. I'm reminded of a certain goddess with three faces of different age. That's just a mind-teasing tangent, though.
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Post by jokerjester on Oct 16, 2008 11:05:02 GMT
It seems odd. I can only assume that Gamma has been to Z's funky world as well, but why does she appear.....normal, I suppose? Maybe there was a reason that Gamma doesn't want to sleep. Whenever we see Annie for the first time, she looks as though she hasn't slept for a number of days.
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Post by inhumandecency on Oct 16, 2008 11:48:13 GMT
It seems odd. I can only assume that Gamma has been to Z's funky world as well, but why does she appear.....normal, I suppose? Maybe there was a reason that Gamma doesn't want to sleep. Whenever we see Annie for the first time, she looks as though she hasn't slept for a number of days. so she can help keep Zimmy in the real world. Unfortunately, Zimmy never sleeps. It remains to be seen whether this accounts for any of Gamma's unusual behavior. |
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Post by inhumandecency on Oct 16, 2008 17:30:56 GMT
In any case, great work Tom, a really fantastic [if short] story arc! It's not over yet! If that last panel had ended with the antimony symbol, then I'd really be tearing my hair out. Or maybe Tom's hair. (just kidding, Tom. I did get the memo that random threats are no longer considered the best way to express appreciation. Also, I'm still working on that teletrichenisis thing). |
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